So the Democrat from Swissvale, Summer Lee, is upset over how the Republicans treated judge Ketanji Brown Jackson during the confirmation hearings (”Pittsburgh Black leaders celebrate Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation,” April 7, TribLIVE). Was she this outraged over how Justice Brett Kavanaugh was treated? How about how Judge Amy Coney Barrett and her family were dragged through the mud? And clearly, Lee and others on the left must have forgotten then-Sen. Joe Biden’s treatment of Justice Clarence Thomas with questions filled with racial overtones. Compared to them, Jackson was treated with kid gloves by the Senate panel.
And exactly how was Jackson “harassed”? Lee and others protesting the hearings provide no specifics, just banal complaints, especially the nonsensical hysteria that Sen. Rand Paul was 15 minutes late. Oh, the horror! Jackson isn’t to be sworn in until Justice Stephen Breyer formally retires sometime in July, so there was no urgency.
Finally, I fail to see how the court becomes more diverse when we have yet another justice from the Harvard-Yale pipeline. Nominating the judge from South Carolina would have provided more diversity.
Anthony L. Boerio
Greensburg